Breaking Free from the Tomb

Pastor Burcham's Sermon

Easter, Sunday, April 16, 2006

“Christ is risen!” “He is risen indeed!”

A blessed Easter to each and every one of you. This past week, I was reading a rather interesting story. It was about a top executive who worked in New York City in one of those tall high-rise buildings. He was sitting in his office one day, and he noticed the fluorescent light above his desk went out. He kind of sighed to himself because he knew what that meant. It meant he'd have to call down and have maintenance come up and replace it because the rules of the building were that only people from the Maintenance Department could replace the light in his office. This kind of disgusted him on several factors. The first was he knew he'd get charged $25.00 for this silly lightbulb in his office but, even worse than that, there was no telling how long it would take for the maintenance people to finally get up there and change the lightbulb. He stewed on it most of the day but, by the end of the day, he'd made up his mind. He wasn't going to call maintenance and pay $25.00 for a $5.00 lightbulb. He was just simply going to change the lightbulb himself. So he hopped on the subway on his way home. When he got out and went to his car, instead of going to his home, he went over to his local home improvement store and he picked up for himself a fluorescent lightbulb that he would then sneak into the building the next morning. Now that was a bit more of a challenge for him because the lightbulb above his desk was 8 feet long. But, sure enough, the next morning, he got on the subway, made his way down to his office nice and early, about 6:30 in the morning. He snuck in past security. No maintenance people around. Got up into his office, closed the door, took down the old burned out light, put in the new one, and sat there looking to himself feeling smug. He didn't spend $25.00 and wait for somebody to come up days on end. Five bucks and one day later, he has a brand new lightbulb. He takes the old tube, and he places it next to his filing cabinet and that's when it hits him. What's he going to do with it? He's now got this 8-foot long, burned out fluorescent tube. He knows if he leaves it there, the cleaning crew will find it that night and they're sure to tell the maintenance crew because they're all in on this together. So he has to get this fluorescent tube out of the building. Well, he remembers, when he dropped his car off at the station for the subway that morning, he remembered that next to it was a construction site. He would simply smuggle the burned out light outside of the building late that night, take it to the construction site, leave it in their refuge pile, problem solved. He calls his wife and said, “Honey, I'll be working late tonight.” Stayed until about 6:30, just long enough to make sure everyone was gone but early enough before the cleaning crew had come in. Sure enough, worked his way downstairs, smuggled it right out of the building, feeling as smug as can be. He went to the subway station. He went ahead and got on the subway car, and he's standing there and that's when strange things started to happen. Because then, all of a sudden, the subway car started filling up and then more people came in and they started putting their hands on the fluorescent tube. They obviously thought the burned out lightbulb was one of the poles in the subway car. The man wasn't sure what he was going to do. Pretty soon, it comes up to his stop and, by the time it reaches his station, there's six people that are holding onto the burned out lightbulb thinking it's a pole in the subway car. It's at that moment he made a split second decision. He abandoned the whole idea of the construction site and simply removed his hand and got off the subway car. Meanwhile, he left six people holding a burned out fluorescent lightbulb.

The question for you this Easter is, “What are you holding onto?” You see, the story obviously doesn't end there and I don't know how it ends. But I can think of two possible scenarios. Neither one of them are really that good. The first one is, when the subway station finally reaches the end of the line, I can just envision some poor man or some poor woman left holding on and realizing they don't have a pole at all but they have a burned out lightbulb they're grabbing onto. Worse than that is if the subway pulled into another station and came to a sudden stop and, sure enough, all the people who thought they were holding onto something safe and secure would find out they weren't. They weren't holding onto anything at all.

You see, I wonder if that's what it was like that first Easter Sunday morning as the women go to the grave. Scripture tells us it's Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, Joanna, and other women. And they're going to the grave to take care of the body of Jesus. I wonder if they didn't feel the same way, that they had been holding onto nothing. You see, there was more than just Jesus' body that was laid in that tomb on Friday but all of the hopes, all of the dreams, all of the aspirations of His followers were buried there as well. They had been holding onto Jesus and now Jesus was gone. So, in reality, they're holding onto nothing. Holding onto nothing but thin air.

Think of the women who are involved. There's Mary Magdalene who scripture says Jesus drove out seven demons from her. And from the moment he did that, then Mary was holding onto Jesus, holding onto Jesus for strength and for life itself but now Jesus is dead. Jesus is gone. What's Mary going to do now? Think of Mary, the mother of Jesus. What is she thinking this morning? Oh sure, she remembers back to the angels when they announced His birth. She remembers back to the shepherds and all the things surrounding that and the teachings of Jesus. She understood He was the Messiah but never, never in her wildest dreams did she think she would watch her son die and certainly not on a cross. What she had been holding onto is now gone.

What about the disciples? They invested three years of their life in this man. They hung on every word He spoke, all of His teaching. Some of it they didn't understand, much of it they did understand. They watched Him do incredible, miraculous things. Think of Peter, impetuous Peter, with his friendship with Jesus. He thought for sure he had secured a place in the kingdom of God . What about James and John? With the influence of their mother, they thought for sure in the coming kingdom they'd be high-ranking officials but Jesus is gone. Jesus is dead. What they had been holding onto, what they thought was safe and secure was nothing more than just holding onto thin air.

Have you been there? Have you ever found yourself just holding on to nothing but thin air? You thought it was safe and secure. You thought it was something that was going to last forever and then it seems like, in an instant, it was gone. Did you build your life around an individual, just wrap yourself around that person, only to find now that person is gone, you have nothing left. Have you poured yourself into your career, sacrificed everything? You sacrificed your marriage. You sacrificed your health. You sacrificed friends, everything you poured into that career. You were holding onto that. And then all it took was ten minutes with the CEO and it was all gone. It was all over. Have you rebelled against your parents? Become an enemy of the teachers, the administrators at school, tried things you thought you'd never try but you wanted to be in with that cool crowd and, now that you're in with them, they're nothing like what you thought. Have you ever found yourself just holding onto nothing but thin air?

What are you holding onto this morning? If you're looking for something to hold onto, then you've come to the right place at the right time. Because Easter gives us something to hold onto. Easter gives us someone to hold onto. Because Easter is the news that Jesus broke free from the grave. The women went to the tomb expecting it to be sealed and expected their future to be nothing but hopelessness. Instead, they found the stone had been rolled away and an angel inside said, “He is not here. He is risen.” With those words, “He is not here. He is risen,” all of a sudden, everything they thought they lost on Friday had been regained and then some. Jesus wasn't dead. What they had been holding onto wasn't gone. Jesus was alive. Jesus had conquered death. No longer could it hold Him. Sin had no power over Him. The evil one couldn't influence Him. Jesus wasn't dead. Jesus was alive. They had something to hold onto. We've got something to hold onto. Easter tells us we have someone to hold onto. Because what Jesus gives us is what we need the most, because Jesus gives us hope. You and I, it's vital to our existence that we have hope. Because, without hope, we can't survive.

There was an interesting study done several years ago by behavioral psychologists. They took a whole group of wharf rats, disgusting, I know, but they took these wharf rats and they divided them up into two groups. They took the first group of rats and they put them into a vat of water to find out how long they could survive. The average time was 17 minutes before they went down for the last time. Then they took the second group and they put them into the water and they watched them but, just moments before they went down for the last time, they reached in and they pulled the rats out and they dried them off and they warmed them up and they gave them something to eat and something to drink and they took care of them for a couple of days. And then they took that same group and put them back into the vat of water. Thirty-five hours later, they were still going strong. The conclusion of the study? The rats had hope. Once they had been saved, they were sure they could survive.

My Friends, you and I have been saved and we don't just survive but we thrive because what Jesus gives us is hope. Because Jesus has saved us. He's saved us from our sin. He's saved us from the power of death. He has saved us for an eternal life. We don't just survive. We thrive.

Let me show you what I mean. I want to introduce you to two people, two people whom I don't know their names but I know their hearts. The first gentleman here I met in Uganda about a month ago. Now what you don't know about this man and what the picture does not reveal is, on his right leg, he has a club foot. So that means it's just pointed straight down and the only way he can get around is to hobble and to use a makeshift crutch, which also you can't see about this man. And even if you met him, he wouldn't want you to see because he keeps this hand up in his sleeve. But every now and then, you catch a glimpse of the fact that his hand is deformed and it's useless to him. Now if you want to talk about a man who's in a hopeless situation, we could talk about this man. It might be different if he were here in this country. Maybe medically, we could do something for him. If not, certainly there would be job training. We could find a place where he could pursue something and take care of himself. We're talking the bush of Uganda . They survive by farming and making bricks, all manual labor. How do you do manual labor when you have a club foot and a deformed hand that will not work? If you want to talk about a man who is buried by the circumstances of life, you would talk about this man. But I ask you, as you look at him, does he look like he's drowning in despair to you? At the Church of Catabango , he led three different choirs in singing and praising God. He danced with two separate groups. And the last time he came around in front of our table, he was singing a song. The song he was singing, “I may be lame, but I can dance for the Lord.” “I may be lame, but I can dance for the Lord.” He had hope, My Friends. He wasn't just surviving. He was thriving.

The second person I want you to meet is a little girl that stole my heart. This little girl is in the bush town of Katate . She lost both of her parents to Aids. She lives in an orphanage out in the country. I don't know the condition of her health, and I don't know her future. If you want to look at an individual, you could say it's hopeless for her. What in the world could she look forward to? She was the one who led the children's choir and sang the loudest so everyone else could follow. She's the one who led another group, as you see in the picture there, dancing for God. And even when the adults came out, she danced with them. And when she smiled, it was electrifying and you could see the joy in her heart. She's not wallowing in self pity. She has the love of Jesus in her heart. She's not just surviving. She's thriving.

You see, both of these individuals know Jesus, the Son of God, came and lived for them. He died for them on Good Friday and, through His death and through His blood, all of their sins have been washed away. And they know because of Easter Sunday. They know because Jesus broke free from the grave, they'll break free from the grave. In fact, nine hours ago, they celebrated Easter just like you and I are celebrating Easter right here, right now. They know, because of Easter, in our Father's house in heaven, etched on the name of the one of the rooms is their name, reserved for them.

My Friends, you have been saved and God has given you hope, not just to survive but to thrive. He has washed away all of your sin and guilt in the blood of Jesus, and He has etched your name on one of the bedrooms of that mansion in heaven so you're guaranteed an eternity with Him. We don't just survive this life. We thrive in this life because of Easter. If you're looking for something to hold onto, if you're looking for something to build your life upon, you've come to the right place on the right day and at the right time. Because Jesus gives us something to hold onto. Because Jesus gives us something that won't disappear into thin air. Jesus gives us hope. It all changed when the angels said, “He is not here. He is risen!” He is not here. He is risen, My Friends! Amen.